Monday, January 4, 2016

On November 11, 2015, a new record for any diamond ever offered at auction was set, according to a Reuters report.
The "Blue Moon Diamond" sold for 48.6 million Swiss francs — the
equivalent of $48.4 million — at Sotheby’s in Geneva, Switzerland to a
Hong Kong buyer, making it the world’s most expensive diamond.
Surprisingly to those in attendance, the successful bidder renamed the
diamond, “Blue Moon of Josephine.”

At 12.03 carats, the Blue Moon
is the largest cushion-shaped fancy vivid blue diamond ever to appear at
auction. It is mounted on a ring and has the top grading of fancy vivid
blue. Sotheby’s gave the diamond a pre-sale estimate of $35 million to
$55 million.

Auctioneer David Bennett called the Blue Moon the
"highest price per carat" ever obtained for any kind of stone, and the
diamond set a world record for any jewel at more than $4 million per
carat.
The blue diamond stone was found in South Africa’s famed
Cullinan mine in January 2014. The distinctive blue color in diamonds is
attributed to trace amounts of the element boron in the crystal
structure.

The Blue Diamond Tops the Graff Pink

Until
recently, the auction record had been held for five years by the Graff
Pink diamond, which British billionaire jeweler Laurence Graff bought
for almost $46 million at another Sotheby’s auction in Geneva in 2010.

Graff
paid 45.4 million francs — almost $46 million — for the diamond and
quickly renamed it, the “Graff Pink.” The rare pink diamond is
rectangular shaped, and weighs 24.78 carats. It is among less than two
percent of the world’s diamonds categorized as “potentially flawless”
because it needs repolishing.

Graff’s buying price of $46 million at the time topped a previous world record for the selling price of a jewel at auction.

In
2013, Sotheby’s auctioned a pink diamond called the “Pink Star” for
$83.2 million, but the buyer ultimately defaulted on the payment. The
stone remains in the auction house’s inventory.

Other Big Sales at Sotheby’s

At
the November 11 Sotheby’s auction, royal jewels, colored gemstones, and
designer pieces by Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier, and Harry Winston
were among 410 lots that found new owners, bringing in $139 million.

A
fancy vivid purple-pink, pear-shaped diamond ring sold for 13.9 million
Swiss francs — approximately $14 million — the second-highest lot of
the night.

An 8.48 carat Burmese ruby and diamond ring that
belonged to the late Maria-Jose, the last Queen of Italy reached just
5.2 million francs, surprising those in attendance that it failed to
meet the reserve price set by the seller.

Of interest to history
buffs, a Cartier diamond and pearl tiara that survived Germany’s sinking
of the Lusitania cruise liner 100 years ago — along with its Canadian
owner Marguerite Lady Allan — sold for $800,000 after heated bidding,
doubling its estimate.

A 15.20 carat fancy orange-pink diamond
pendant owned by former James Bond actor Sean Connery sold for more than
4 million francs, tripling its estimate.